The second chart shows the death rate – the number of cancer deaths of people in a certain age group per 100,000 people of the same age group.
Three different measures allow us to understand how the mortality of cancer has changed: the number of deaths, the death rate, and the age-standardized death rate.
For people who are younger than 50, the cancer death rate is more than 40-times lower (more detail here).
Adjusted for demographic changes we find that the age-standardized death rate from cancer has fallen by 15% since 1990.
Whilst cancer prevalence shows a positive relationship to income, death rates from cancer incorporate several factors: cancer prevalence, detection and treatment.
There is also no correlation between the level of income inequality in a country and the cancer death rate.
Cancer death rates correct for changes in population size, age-standardized death rates correct for population size and age structure. »